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Tuesday: Weekly Book Review—The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule

How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections is the subtitle of The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule. And encourage my imagination it did, along with the numerous of fantastic ideas it gave me as it sparked my imagination while reading it. I kept paper and a pen inside the book and came up with three pages of my own ideas from this book. If this is all you get it out of, it is a must read.

But that is not all I got out of it at all. Yes lots of it is simple and common sense, but in a very inspiring way. It is a easy enjoyable read and has many step by step instructions for simple crafts. Although, I didn’t think of this book as an “art and crafts guide”, I thought of it more as a parenting book, one that really makes you excited to be a parent.

One thing I loved about this book is it didn’t leave me with a feeling of, “Ugh, all these crafts look so fun, all these ideas are so great, but how much is each thing going to cost me!” Lots of her ideas come from using your imagination and nature.

I did learn a couple of new things that I had not thought of before, one big one being the art supply section. Getting nicer materials, teaching your children to respect them, and some fantastic ideas to go along with art.

I am excited to give the ideas in this book a try, and the three pages I thought up on my own because of this book.

There was a lot of cristism when this book came out (I have taken these quotes from different reviews), “all the stuff she writes about has been and is being done over and over in “Creative” families around the world…Nothing new here” and “many of us have been doing what she does for years (and years) and we don’t claim it as our own original ideas.”

I COMPLETELY disagree, the book is simple and inspiring at the same time. It gives us a gentle reminder of how important parenting is and to keep us from running to Toys R Us when our children are becoming bored or turning to TV, Computer or Video games. Not to mention the great ORGINAL ideas Amanda did come up with in the book. Or if you are an inventive mother, this can just help you get out of those ruts we all get into at times.